Misfortune
by AnimeLoverSara
Summary: InuYasha and the others are continuing their search for Naraku and the last shard of the Sacred Jewel, and it isn't long before trouble finds them. Will all of them be able to survive the dangers of the forest and keep their romances alive? InuKag, MirSan
1. Evening Visions

Evening Visions  
  
"InuYasha?"  
  
Kagome's voice called to the dog-eared hanyou from behind him. He stopped walking. Her tone ofvoice told him she had been thinking for a while, and planned to ask him a question. He usually didn't like her questions, but he answered them nonetheless. "What?"  
  
"Would...Um...What would you do if you found out that Kikyo were still alive?"  
  
Of all things to ask him. He knew there was no correct answer to this. If he answered that he wouldn't do anything, she'd know he was lying. But if he said anything about searching for her or trying to find out the truth, she'd get mad. She had him stuck, with one simple question. This was why he hated questions.  
  
"I...don't know. This isn't the time to be worrying about that. We have a Shikon shard to find."  
  
"Oh . . . Right . . . " Kagome wasn't satisfied. Figures. She was hard to please. But he didn't dare say anything more, unwilling to risk hurting her with the truth, the reality that he couldn't forget Kikyo, he couldn't forget his first love. Yet, he could feel tension between them due to his dodging of the question.  
  
"InuYasha?" Not again...  
  
"What now?" He turned to look at her. Her brown eyes stared into his own golden ones.  
  
"I know it's a lot to ask, and may seem kind of strange, but..." She paused to figure out how to word what she wanted to say. InuYasha waited anxiously. She was taking forever.  
  
"Will you hold me?"  
  
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Sango was walking through a village, alone. It looked vaguely familiar, as if she had been there once before, when she was little. She looked around, and before she knew it, she was in front of a huge mansion. The owner of it was young, well-dressed, meaning he was rich, and resembled someone she knew. He was looking at a sheathed sword, but he sensed he was being watched and looked up. The moment he saw her, he ran toward Sango with his arms open, as if he wanted to hug her. "It's YOU! It's really you! You've come back to me!"  
  
He ran up to her and threw his arms around her. She took a step backwards to brace herself. She began to blush, noticing a villager or two stop to watch. Who did this mysteriously familiar man think he was? He was embarrassing her in front of others, yet he didn't seem to care. How did he know her? Or better yet, how did she know him?  
  
"Oh, how I've missed you all these years!" He released his hold on her. She felt the need to slap him, a feeling that also seemed familiar in a different way.  
  
"Um, excuse me . . . who are you?" Maybe if he told her a name it would jog a memory.  
  
"You don't remember? My name is Takeda Kuranosuke. I am the, as you recalled last time we encountered, â€Ëœsnotty prince' who has admired you and your abilities for years. Last time we saw each other, we parted with the words that you would return here when you had achieved your goal of defeating the demon who troubled you."  
  
So that was who he was. Memories flooded back to Sango. But she still felt empty. She longed for a certain person, but it wasn't this man. And the demon was without a doubt Naraku. Was she at this village because she had defeated him? What was going on here?  
  
"I also recall that last time you and I were beside each other, there were other people? What happened to them, if you don't mind my asking?" Sango's head began to hurt. She began to long for that person more and more by the second. She didn't want to answer his question because she didn't know the answer herself. She had a strong feeling the person she longed for was one of the people she was with. If she could remember this prince in front of her, why couldn't she remember who she had previously traveled with?  
  
"By the look on her face, I think we can both agree that she does mind." A strange man's voice came from behind her. It brought relief to her, thought she didn't know why. She turned around to see a man in a purple and dark blue attire, with beautiful violet eyes and his short black hair pulled into a ponytail close to the bottom of his head. He carried a bronze staff topped with a golden, circular, sharp decoration. She knew right away this monk was the person she was longing for. But she still didn't know who he was.  
  
But Kuranosuke was finding out for her. "Who are you? You look familiar, yet I get a foreboding feeling just from looking at you. Who are you to not only intrude on my village but interrupt my conversation?"  
  
"All I should need to say is that my name is Miroku. My turn to question, only I direct my question to Sango. Sango, do you remember me?" Sango suddenly felt a feeling of joy rush over her. He knew the answers to the questions she had asked herself! She rushed forward and threw her arms around Miroku, and for some unknown reason, gained all her memories back.  
  
"Yes. I know exactly who you are. You are my Houshi-sama. And I am Sango, your wife and soon-to-be child bearer!"  
  
---------------------------------------------  
  
Kagome gave up on number thirteen and looked at fourteen. "If angle A is congruent to angle B, and angle C equals eighty degrees, what do angles A and B equal?" Kagome was already frustrated with the test she was failing, and now this? Who cares what they equal? This was one of the easier questions on the test, but thanks to her time traveling, she had missed the day when the class was taught the method of solving this problem. And she hadn't understood her friend's notes when she had copied them. She took a few more seconds to try to understand how she could solve the problem, but these few precious seconds were interrupted.  
  
"Pencils down. The exam is now over. Please turn the test over and wait for me to collect it from your desk."  
  
Kagome panicked. Her time was up, and she had left over half of them blank because she had no idea how to solve them. The teacher walked past her desk and took the test from her hands. She put her head down on her desk. She had failed yet another Geometry test. What was she going to do now? It was clear she couldn't juggle the responsibility of trying to live in two different times. Would she finally be forced to choose one?  
  
"Kagome-sama? Are you all right? You don't look so good." It was her friends, looking her way, concerned.  
  
She wanted to answer them, but she couldn't lie and say yes, yet she didn't want to worry them.  
  
"Not really . . . I didn't do so good on that test . . . I didn't understand the notes."  
  
"Bad luck," one of them replied, "cuz that was just a 15 problem warm-up. We're taking the final, 50 question one right now."  
  
"Just my luck..." Kagome's stomach began to hurt. She didn't have to think much to figure out why. She needed to do something to lower her stress level. But she didn't have time to come up with any ways to do so, because the teacher began passing papers out the class once again. Sure enough, it was a 50-question test. Her stomach lurched, and she couldn't help but gag. Maybe it wasn't stress. Good thing she didn't eat breakfast this morning.  
  
"Um, excuse me, Mr. Sakamota, I don't feel very well. Could I go to the nurse's office?"  
  
"If you must, but keep in mind that you won't be excused from the final. Bring me the papers I handed you and come get a pass." Kagome followed orders and stepped outside the classroom. She stared at the ground, her arm around her pain-filled stomach as she walked down the hall. But she didn't get very far before she bumped into someone. That was the consequence of not watching where she was going.  
  
"Oops, I'm sorry, I wasn't looking . . ." She stammered. She looked up at the obstacle in her way, only to see a boy in a bright red fire rat suit in her face. He had long, black hair, a beaded necklace, and glaring, dark eyes that reflected anger.  
  
"Watch where you're going! Oh . . .Kagome." InuYasha's face changed once he realized who had bumped into him. "Heh, what luck, now I don't have to find something called "class B", you came to me instead!"  
  
"Inuyasha, what are you doing here?!" Kagome also wondered why he was human, but felt it was best not to ask...yet.  
  
"Feh! You always ask questions . . . anyway, don't you think it's about time you come back? You said you'd be back in three days four days ago! So I'm here to drag your pathetic butt back! We've got a shikon shard to find!" So that was it. He'd come to fetch her. Like some kind of toy or something.  
  
"So that's all you came here for? To drag me back through the well?"  
  
"What do you mean, â€Ëœthat's all?'You've been here longer than you said you would be!"  
  
The fight continued until Kagome had had enough. "Fine! Whatever! Sit boy!"  
  
"Ggghh!" WHAM! Inuyasha hit the ground hard and fast. Unluckily, the sound caused by Kagome's words was so loud that half the school had probably heard it. A teacher came out of her class room. Inuyasha was still on the ground.  
  
"What is going on here?" She looked from Kagome to Inuyasha, who was still laying face down on the ground. "Who is that student? And what the heck is he wearing? Where's his school uniform?"  
  
"Um . . . Ano . . . He's not a student . . ." Kagome struggled to find words. Her stomach began to ache again. She suddenly remembered she had been on her way to the office when she'd bumped into him. " He's here to pick me up. I called home sick from my teacher's class and my brother here had to come pick me up so I could go home."  
  
"Uh-huh . . ." She didn't seem to believe her. "So why is he on the ground?" Great. How could she explain that one. InuYasha stood up and looked at her. She wondered why he hadn't gotten up earlier rather than lie on the ground for that long.  
  
"Uh, well, you see . . . he's very clumsy." The idea had suddenly appeared in her mind, and she blurted it without thinking.  
  
"Who are YOU calling clumsy?!" She had made him angry. Hopefully he'd just keep his mouth shut for now, not say anything stupid . . . "You're the one who made me fall and we both know it!" So much for not saying anything stupid.  
  
"What's your name, young lady?" Kagome looked at the ground. Great job, InuYasha. With luck she'd only get detention. Then it hit her. She couldn't get in trouble if she didn't use her name. "It's Sango." She glared at InuYasha, willing him to say something. He got the message, but stared at her with a blank face.  
  
"Your whole name?" Great. She hadn't thought of a second name. What could she use? "Miroku Sango." It may have sounded weird, but it was better than saying "Higurashi Kagome" and getting detention for the first time in her life.  
  
The teacher pulled a small notepad and pen from the purse at her side and wrote a note. "Well, Miss . . . Sango . . . Give this to your mother, and go ahead and leave. But next time your brother is sent to pick you up, I should hope you will behave more appropriately." She handed Kagome the note and walked away down the hall. Kagome let out a sigh of relief before turning on InuYasha. But she didn't want to yell at him in school and get into trouble from another teacher in class. She started walking away, knowing he'd follow her. He did.  
  
Once they were outside of the school's front gates and out of view of anyone from the school, she stopped walking and turned around. "Why did you have to do that?! I almost got detention! Or worse, I could have been suspended! And all because you had to open your big mouth!"  
  
"You were the one who got yourself in trouble! And what about that name you gave her? Miss Miroku Sango?"  
  
"I only had to do that because YOU wouldn't keep your mouth shut!"  
  
"Feh."  
  
"SIT boy!"  
  
"Ggghhh!" WHACK. It looked and sounded like it hurt more now than it had in the school. "What the hell?!  
  
Stop doing that!"  
  
"Sit boy."  
  
"Augh!!" WHAM. "Will You STOP it!?"  
  
"Sit sit sit sit sit sit!!!!" WHAMWHAMWHAMWHAMWHAMWHAM. InuYasha didn't move. He didn't open his mouth, he didn't even get up. Maybe she'd taken it a little too far. But she wasn't that concerned yet.  
  
A minute passed. Still no movement. Then it hit her. Maybe his human form couldn't handle hitting the concrete so many times. She kneeled down and flipped him onto his back. He had fallen unconscious.  
  
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Miroku was walking at the back of the group. They were walking through a forest. He got a strange feeling that something bad was going to happen. As he looked around the forest, he started to fall behind. Kirara noticed, turned around, and let out a small cry. Sango looked at her cat, then followed it's gaze to Miroku.  
  
"Something wrong, Houshi-sama?"  
  
"No, not really. It's just this forest. I feel like something's wrong with it, like it isn't really as empty as it seems to be." She looked concerned. He could see by her confused look that she didn't feel the same way. He looked to see if maybe InuYasha or Kagome felt the same way and noticed that they hadn't stopped.  
  
Sango hadn't noticed yet. "Well...we should try to catch up. It's probably nothing." He smiled to try to diminish her worry. It seemed to work, so they ran a bit to catch up with the others. As they were running, Miroku's right hand began to hurt. Badly. He hoped it wasn't what he was thinking of. He stopped running and looked at it. A wind was beginning to pick up. Not good.  
  
He turned around and ran away from the others. The last thing he needed was not only to be pulled into his wind tunnel, but to have everyone else pulled in as well. Sango had noticed his change of direction. "Houshi-sama? Where are you going?" Please don't follow me, especially not you, Sango! He looked over his shoulder.  
  
She had gotten InuYasha and Kagome's attention, and they had all started following him.  
  
"NO! Stay BACK!!!" He felt the prayer beads that sealed his hand shatter. They were still following him. InuYasha was gaining on him. They didn't notice the wind that was beginning to grow in strength. This was bad . . . really bad. If they didn't stop following him, it would be the end for all of them. He had to lose them. He jumped off of the path and kept running, dodging trees as fast as he could. He hadn't run for very long before he saw light flash from his hand. It started to pull him in, rather than just the leaves and rocks that it grabbed from the ground while he ran. InuYasha was just behind him, but saw the light flash and stopped. Miroku kept running, and it wasn't long before a good distance had grown between the two of them.  
  
Miroku came to a clearing in the forest and looked at his hand. It was completely gone. In less than a minute, his arm up to his elbow had disappeared. It didn't hurt by itself, but when he tried to resist being pulled in, the strain on his muscles caused pain. In the far distance he heard the voices of InuYasha, Kagome, and Sango, and felt he still wasn't far enough. He tried to run back into the forest, but his legs failed him. He fell to his knees, scared. This was it. But he didn't understand. His father had been much older when his wind tunnel sucked him in, so why was Miroku's pulling him in so soon? Was it because of the praying mantis demon that had wounded it? Had it been slowly spreading since? Whatever the cause, Miroku couldn't shake off the feeling like he had failed. They had failed to find the last Shikon shard and destroy Naraku in time. He was going to die at age 19. His family line was ending, and it was too late to do anything about it. He thought about how the curse had helped him in many ways throughout his life. Miroku tried to remember the countless demons it had pulled in, all the Saimyosho, the rocks, trees, and water it had sucked in to help him in certain situations. His most powerful weapon had turned on him, and was now killing him rather than aiding him. By the time his thoughts were through, he looked away from the ground he had been staring at without seeing. He looked up, and there was Sango, watching him, a look of horror on her face. It reminded him of when he was little, watching his father pulled into his wind tunnel. The last thing he saw was her pretty face once more shedding tears for his sake.  
  
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InuYasha woke up abruptly, as if he had just been slapped. He looked around the room, but everyone else seemed to still be asleep. Kagome was in her sleeping bag, Sango had her back to everyone, facing the wall, Shippo had fallen asleep on Miroku's chest, and Miroku seemed to be having a bad dream. He had broken into a sweat, and had a weird expression on his face. It almost seemed scared. InuYasha considered waking him up, but decided against playing Mr. Sympathetic. After all, he had just been unwillingly waken up from his dreams, and figured Miroku would be ok anyway. He wasn't exactly weak.  
  
InuYasha, deciding he was thirsty, stood up, walked to the door, took one last glance at everyone's sleeping faces, and left, unknowingly opening the door and letting a ray of sun shine on Miroku and Shippo for a few seconds. He grabbed the wooden bucket that sat outside the door and headed for the river.  
  
Back inside the hut, Miroku woke abruptly. He was hot and sweaty. He carefully moved the still sleeping Shippo to the ground, sat up, and sighed. Another night he'd had a dream about his right hand. The past few nights he had had dreams similar to tonight's . . . he was sick of being sucked into his wind tunnel already, and it hadn't actually happened yet. He formed his hand into a fist, and released it again. Good. It didn't hurt. Yesterday he had woken up and it had hurt. He lifted his hand to eye level, palm up, and looked at it. Was his mind trying to tell him something? Was it getting close? He couldn't help but feel as if they were cutting corners too short in their search for the last shard of the Sacred Jewel and the destruction of Naraku, but nothing could be done. They couldn't destroy Naraku without finding the shard, and they were having no luck so far. As he thought, he continued to look at his hand without actually seeing it.  
  
Tonight's dream had been the worst of them all. His hand didn't hurt, but in his dream Sango had witnessed the horror as well. Even though it was just a dream, he couldn't get rid of the image of Sango's face. She had looked so hurt, on the verge on tears. And in the end, she had cried. It looked so real. Would he really have to see that face in reality? He hoped not. No one should ever have a facial expression like that, especially not Sango. Miroku didn't want to imagine what would happen if they didn't destroy Naraku in time. He was beginning to against his will, but a voice speaking to him dragged him away from his thoughts.  
  
"Are you all right, Miroku?" It was InuYasha. He placed the now full water bucked in the corner of the room. Miroku looked away from InuYasha and back at his hand. It was still in the air in front of him.  
  
InuYasha wondered why he was looking at it. Had his dream had something to do with this? Come to think of it, maybe he had done something to it. After all, last night InuYasha had been waken up by a weird noise, looked over, and saw Miroku beating the wall with his hand. Maybe that had happened again. If that were the case, no wonder he was looking at it. It probably hurt. Once Miroku noticed InuYasha was looking at his hand, he put it down quickly. He was being secretive again.  
  
"Yeah, I'm fine." He looked away. "It's nothing."  
  
"If it were nothing, then you wouldn't have been staring at your wind tunnel." InuYasha sat down next to Miroku.  
  
"We need to find the shard and destroy Naraku soon." He was still looking away, staring at the wall with his eyes unfocused.  
  
"Feh! That's it? That's all you've got to say?" Miroku finally turned his head to look at him with narrowed eyes.  
  
"You were expecting more?"  
  
"Fine, if you don't want to tell me what's wrong, then don't!" It was InuYasha's turn to look away. He began to wonder why he actually thought that Miroku would open up to him. It's not like he ever opened up to Miroku. Why should he? They may have been friends, but Miroku didn't need to know everything.  
  
"It's my wind tunnel . . . I get the feeling I . . . don't have much time left . . ." There was the shock of the day. Miroku had actually decided to talk. But it was something InuYasha didn't know how to respond to.  
  
He had to think of something, no matter how rational or irrational it was.  
  
"What makes you think that? Do you really think that I have the patience to wait much longer to kill Naraku? I'm ready to kill Naraku right now, if only we knew where he was. And once we find him and confront him, I don't care if you have to suck him into that stupid hand of yours, he's going to die!" Miroku stared at him. "What the hell are you looking at now?"  
  
"Could you keep it down? Some of us are still trying to sleep!" InuYasha's yelling had woken Kagome up. She hadn't been having a very good dream, but still, she liked her sleep.  
  
"Feh! You people all sleep too long anyway. We aren't going to find any shards or locate Naraku if you just lie there!" InuYasha clearly wanted everyone up and moving. But when Miroku glanced in Sango's direction, she appeared to still be asleep.  
  
But she wasn't asleep. Her eyes were closed, but she was half listening to the conversations taking place behind her back. So Miroku was worried about his wind tunnel. It seemed to really bother him, but he never talked about it. Even she was surprised he had confessed to InuYasha. When Kagome woke up, her mind switched to thinking about her dreams. The first had been very strange. She had amnesia or something, and Miroku had cured it instantaneously, but the second one had been even stranger. She was being forced to marry a man in her village, an exterminator who she had seen only once. Her village had been back to normal: not destroyed, with all its residents still alive and well, and even Kagome, InuYasha, and Shippo had been there in the beginning. When the marriage ceremony was almost complete, Miroku had shown himself.  
  
She abandoned the other man and the ceremony and had run over to him. Or tried to at least. He had seen what was taking place and run too. He wasn't aware that she was chasing him, and she had spent the remainder of the dream chasing him and searching for him once she had lost him. She hadn't found that a very exciting or good dream either.  
  
Her mind focused once again on the conversations behind her. InuYasha was saying he wanted to get going, there was water splashing, and Kagome was asking InuYasha to let Sango have her sleep. She chose this time to roll over and reveal she wasn't sleeping. "It's ok, I'm awake anyway."  
  
"Oh! Good morning, Sango-chan!" Kagome was cheerful despite having been waken up earlier than she had wanted to. She still looked tired.  
  
"Morning, Kagome-chan."  
  
"NOW can we go??" InuYasha was as impatient as ever.  
  
"If Sango and Kagome-sama are ready, I'm ready." Miroku seemed anxious to leave as well. Kagome packed up her sleeping bag, grabbed the still sleeping Shippo in her arms, and they all stepped outside into the bright sunlight. 


	2. The Demonic Forest

The Demonic Forest  
  
They walked away from the hut that they had stayed in the night before and paused a second to decide which direction they wanted to travel in next. They had come out of a mountain pass, and found no value in retracing their steps. To the left was a river that began in more mountains and snaked along toward the forest straight ahead of them. To the right was field that seemed to stretch, unending, for miles and miles. The forest seemed to be the best bet.  
  
But as they approached the forest, something didn't seem right. InuYasha noticed it didn't smell nor seem like a normal forest. It was quiet. Too quiet.  
  
"Are you sure th-this is the best idea?" Shippo asked. He was obviously terrified of the thought of stepping foot into the forest, judging by the fact that he was trembling in Kagome's arms.  
  
"I get a bad vibe from this place too, but it seems the only other option." Miroku said. "Unless we turn back now, we either go through this forest searching for the jewel shard, or we walk across the empty looking meadow over there. And what do we do if the jewel actually is hidden within this forest or beyond it? We need to search this way anyway." Miroku looked from left to right, trying to judge how big the forest actually was lengthwise.  
  
"He's right. And besides, do you really think I'm gonna run away with my tail between my legs and let some forest beat me??" And with those words, InuYasha marched straight into the forest, leaving the rest to follow cautiously. It was very dark inside the forest. The trees were so thick that not much light was able to shine through. Kirara transformed from the small, lovable cat into the fierce, flame-resistant, flying beast to better aid Sango and the others if needed. Sango looked over at Kirara, wondering if she had actually sensed danger or if she was merely preparing herself for it. She decided she would change into her demon slaying suit as well. She dropped behind the group, hid behind a few trees with the help of Kirara, and changed quickly. When she came out of hiding, she noticed Kagome had not only seen her leave but had also realized what she was doing. She began to walk slower to keep the guys in a distance close enough for Sango and Kirara to catch up. After a few minutes of walking, InuYasha stoped. His ears twitched, and he put his nose in the air. He caught the scent he was looking for. His head turned to the left, and he took a small step toward a tree that was right in front of his face. As soon as his face approached it, the tree moved back a few feet.  
  
"These trees are alive! This place is haunted! We're gonna die!" Shippo screamed. He began to cry as InuYasha jumped back, pulled out his Tetsusaiga, and tried to cut down the tree. It jumped back, and the tree behind InuYasha hit him hard in the back, knocking him flat on the ground. Miroku tried to throw a scroll at the demon trees. It dodged it, and he had to duck as a branch from another tree swiped at him. As soon as he had dodged that branch, he was hit hard in the stomach by the trunk of yet another tree and sent flying into the trees behind him.  
  
"Houshi-sama!" Sango cried, watching Miroku disappear into the dense trees to her right. She didn't have time to keep her eyes on the spot where he had vanished, because the trees were attacking all of them. She looked over and watched the others struggle to fight and dodge trees all at once. This wasn't good. The next thing she knew, Kirara pulled Sango onto her back, grabbed Kagome and threw her into Sango, and flown into the sky. Sango caught Kagome and helped her sit upright on Kirara's back. They looked down just in time to see InuYasha try to jump up into the air with them, but he was grabbed by a tree and pulled back down.  
  
"Kaze no Kizu!!" InuYasha sent his wind scar flying right into the tree that had grabbed him. It blasted apart and splinters of wood showered down on him. He tried once again to jump up to the girls above him, but the trees around the one he had destroyed weren't very happy. They all grabbed him at once and began pulling him in different directions. He could help but let out a scream of pain.  
  
"Hiraikotsu!" Sango threw her boomerang bone weapon at the trees, releasing InuYasha from all but one's grip. It took advantage of being the only one with a grip left on him and pulled him into the depths of the forest, passing him from one tree to another. Each tree grabbed him in a hold that was inescapable, even for the powerful half-demon.  
  
Sango, Kagome, and Shippo all tried to follow in the direction they thought the trees were taking him, but lost sight of him very quickly.  
  
"What do we do now? We've lost both Miroku and InuYasha. Do we just wait here?" Kagome was devastated. She seemed scared, confused. Sango wasn't much better, and Shippo was hysterical, unable to speak.  
  
"I guess we should try to see if theres any caves or areas where the two of them may have been taken. We're in a tough spot, though, cuz we have to decide who to search for: Miroku or InuYasha."  
  
"Why can't we look for both?" Kagome obviously hadn't been paying as much attention to what had happened as Sango had. But Sango didn't seem to find that very important. She was more than willing to explain.  
  
"See how the path is clearly obvious from up here, and it runs almost straight through the forest? Well, Miroku was pulled into one direction, and InuYasha into another. Come to think of it, I'm not sure which way was which up here, I think we may have been turned around . . . "  
  
"So the question now isn't which boy do we look for, it's what direction do we look in, right?" Kagome understood now.  
  
"Yeah. So pick one."  
  
"Me? Why do I have to pick one?" Kagome turned around to look at Sango, smiling.  
  
"Would you rather I picked it?" Sango didn't smile back. She was looking at the forest, not Kagome's face. Kagome realized now wasn't the time to be stupid and joke around. "Kirara, to the right!" As soon as Sango yelled out the order, her cat followed it with a gentle purr of consent.  
  
Kirara glided just out of reach of the trees, but close enough to the forest for them to see inside it slightly. They couldn't see any people, just a few rocks every now and then, and patches of grass surrounded by trees all around.  
  
"This seems hopeless, doesn't it?" Sango was beginning to become depressed.  
  
"No, we'll find them. I'm sure they'll be ok, it just might take awhile." Kagome said in an attempt to comfort her friend, also trying to comfort herself. It did seem awfully helpless with their limited vision.  
  
"What's that?" Shippo, finally able to speak, pointed to a glint of silver that shone between two trees.  
  
"If I didn't know better, I'd say that was a spider's web." Sango looked closer. Kagome was right. It looked exactly like a spider's web.  
  
"I don't like the look of that. If that is a spider's web, its no small, harmless spider." They had been swirling over one side of the forest path, and so far hadn't gotten very far from it. "I also don't like the fact that we were this close to those webs the whole time we were in the forest."  
  
Kagome looked from the path to the spot they were right now. It was pretty close, less than half a mile. "That's true . . . I hope neither Miroku nor InuYasha get to meet whoever owns those webs . . . "  
  
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Miroku was hit hard in the stomach and knocked backwards into the forest behind him. He landed hard on the ground, unable to catch himself after having been taken by surprise. But as soon as he saw the tree branches reaching for him again, he did a back flip, turned on his feet, and ran deeper into the forest. He didn't want to run away from the others, especially as he heard a scream from InuYasha, but the trees blocked his way back to them. The branches hurt when they hit, too, and he knew he wouldn't be able to take getting hit by them for very long. His only option was to run as far and as fast as he could, hoping to reach the end of the forest or a clearing in it before he was completely drained of energy.  
  
After a few minutes of running, the ground beneath him got bumpy. The tree roots were sticking up out of the ground rather than going straight down. He started paying more attention to where he was putting his feet, and felt himself slow down. But he was still running faster than the tree branches could swing at him. While watching the ground, he saw something silver glint at the top of his eye. He looked up just enough to see himself tear through a spider's web. It stuck to his face, making it difficult to see. He continued forward, breaking through a couple more webs, feeling as if he was approaching a greater danger than the one he was running from.  
  
After a few more minutes and three more spider webs, he reached a big clearing in the forest, just what he had hoped for. He ran into the middle of it and pulled the last of the spider webs off of his face and clothes. His staff was hopelessly covered with them, so he threw it down and took advantage of the chance to catch his breath. Once he had recovered enough, he looked around him. He was surrounded by forest on all sides. The leaves and smaller branches of the trees moved as if blown by a light breeze, but no wind was blowing at the moment. Miroku shivered. He wasn't cold, but the trees gave him the creeps. And he was surrounded by them.  
  
Miroku stood up. He had caught his breath, and now needed to figure out what he was going to do. Just as he began an attempt to think up a plan, he heard a crunching noise behind him. Someone or something was coming. He hoped it was InuYasha and the others, but somehow he doubted it was. The footsteps didn't sound human. It looked like he was about to meet the owners of the webs he had passed and destroyed.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------  
  
InuYasha was grabbed and pulled from one tree to another. There was no way to escape the grip of the trees, especially since he was not only unable to tell which direction he would be pulled next, but also because he was never held by one tree for very long. He was being passed from tree to tree, root to branch, branch to root, endlessly. Every time he tried to struggle free or use his claws against whatever was grabbing him, it would pass him to another tree, or flip him upside down. Eventually he gave up, and let the trees take him wherever they were trying to take him.  
  
After what seemed like a lifetime, the one tree threw him onto the ground rather than passing him to another. He stood up, sore from being gripped so hard and passed so many times. He looked around. The tree that had dropped him was no longer moving, and neither were the trees around it. He turned around, and saw that he was in front of a cave. Apparently he was supposed to walk into it, but he decided against that. He instead began to jump up the mountainside, dodging the tree branches that lashed out at him as he jumped. He reached a ledge way out of reach of even the tallest of the trees, and stopped. He turned around and saw the path they had been walking along before they were attacked. He remembered that Kagome and Sango had taken to the air before they could get dragged away by the trees. He scanned the top of the forest for Kirara and didn't see anything other than trees. Then, he suddenly noticed something come flying out from behind a very tall tree. They were quite a distance away, but if he ran along the top of the mountains they would be able to see him. He jumped the remaining distance to the top of the mountain he was standing on, and started jumping from mountaintop to mountaintop, running toward Kirara. As he got closer, he noticed they were slowly moving away from him, away from the mountains as well.  
  
"Hey!! Kagome! Sango! Come back here!" He yelled as loudly as he could, and sure enough, they heard him. Kirara spun around and flew toward InuYasha as fast as she could.  
  
"InuYasha! You're ok!" Kagome jumped onto the mountain, off of Kirara's back as soon as she got the chance. She ran forward and threw her arms around InuYasha. "I was so worried!"  
  
InuYasha, taken by surprise at first by Kagome's affection, looked away, blushing. "Keh! As if I'd let some tree do me in! That was pathetic. Miroku better not have let the trees get him." InuYasha looked around. "Speaking of Miroku, where is he?" But he already knew the answer.  
  
Kagome released her hold on InuYasha, slightly disappointed that he hadn't hugged her back. "We haven't found him yet." She stood on one foot, lifting the other so that only her toes were touching the ground. Her gaze shifted to the forest. Her hand went up to her mouth, covering it as if she didn't want to say what she was about to."But we found some large spider webs when we were searching. We didn't see the actual spiders, meaning they aren't in their webs, and we didn't see Miroku either . . ." He voice trailed off. InuYasha looked from Kagome's face to Sango's face. They both looked desperate and upset by the fact that Miroku was missing. It bothered InuYasha to think of Miroku stuck in a spider's web, too, but not as much as seeing the pained look on even Shippo's face. The worst of it was, he didn't have a clue what to do or how to find him either. They couldn't all fit on Kirara, and there was no way InuYasha nor the others could re-enter the forest without getting attacked by trees. He remembered the cave. It was worth a shot to at least mention it.  
  
"One thing's for sure, we're not going back into that damn forest. When I was carried by the trees I was brought to a cave and dropped. Maybe Miroku also found the cave and entered it. Should we go take a look?"  
  
"I don't know, that doesn't sound like the best option right now . . . " Kagome sounded doubtful. So much for that idea. But what other options were left?  
  
"What do you mean, you don't know? What else can we do?" InuYasha sounded angry, but Kagome knew he was just frustrated.  
  
"I don't know. Maybe we should wait here while Sango and Kirara go back out and search for him more."  
  
"I guess that's the best answer for now, and if I don't find anything, I'll come back and we'll develop a better plan from there." Sango pulled herself onto Kirara's back once more, and looked out toward the forest she was about to search. "Sound ok to you, InuYasha?"  
  
"Feh, do what you want." Obviously it wasn't what he wanted to do, but he sat down on the mountaintop anyway, eyes shut.  
  
Kagome looked at Sango. "Good luck." She sat down next to InuYasha and watched Sango fly away to search for the missing monk. 


	3. Sticky Situations

Sticky Situations  
  
Miroku got ready to face whatever came out of the trees toward him. He pulled all the webs he could off of his staff, pulled out a scroll, and got ready to throw it. He waited for the demon to approach him as he heard the footsteps grow louder and louder. Then suddenly, they stopped. The forest grew quiet again. Miroku froze, unwilling to let his guard down. The enemy was trying to surprise him, but he wasn't going to let it happen. He waited patiently, ready to attack the second it came toward him. Moments passed. Nothing happened. Just as he was beginning to wonder if he had overlooked the noises, he heard a noise behind him, spun around, and sent his scroll flying with the words "Demons Begone!" The scroll hit its target hard in the face, covering up 6 of the 8 eyes.  
  
The giant spider didn't appreciate being nearly blinded by Miroku's spiritual power. It used its remaining two eyes to see who it was facing, and shot threads of silky web from its mouth toward the human. He dodged it easily. Miroku then ran forward, jumped the height of the spider demon, and threw his staff down onto the scroll he had already thrown. He focused his power on destroying the demon, which didn't take long. As he fell from his jump, the spider keeled over backwards with a deafening screech. It fell on its back and all eight of its legs curled up close to its abdomen. One of its fangs fell out from the fall. When Miroku landed from the fall, he turned around, saw that he had killed the demon, and began to pray for it. But his prayer was interrupted by countless more screeches. That hadn't been the only spider in the forest. Now he was going to have to face the revenge seeking relatives of the dead demon in front of him. One spider demon by itself had been easy enough to handle, but he didn't know how many he could handle at once. He didn't have long to wonder how he was going to beat them all before three charged out of the trees. Webs came flying from three directions. Miroku flipped backward onto his hands, then back to his feet to avoid getting caught. He pulled out three scrolls and hurled them. Two of the three hit their targets, stopping them in their tracks, but he had thrown one a little off. The demon it had missed continued to charge toward him. He wished Sango was here with him right now. He could use a throw of Hiraikotsu to finish off the two demons he had hit with his scrolls and take the third one down without effort. But Sango was hopefully somewhere safe, although he had no idea what had happened to any of his friends.  
  
He jumped backwards as the spider lunged forward to try to bite him, poison dripping from its fangs. It missed him by an inch, and as he was trying to back away from it a little, he heard a noise behind him. Two more spiders came out of the trees toward him, just as the two that had been hit by his scrolls regained their strength and started coming at him. He was completely surrounded. His only option of defense against them would be his wind tunnel, but he didn't think the winds were strong enough to pull them in fast enough. But it was worth a try. He pulled the prayer beads that sealed the void off of his hand, facing his now open wind tunnel toward the spider that was closest to him. It tried to resist the wind, failed, and flew off of the ground and into Miroku's hand. Having eliminated the closest one, he closed his hand and tried to move away from the others. He noticed that even with the one spider gone, he was still surrounded by four spiders. He was trapped. He considered forming a barrier around himself, but realized that the spiders were closing in on him and he wouldn't have time. There was nothing left to do but open his wind tunnel and pray for the best. He managed to suck in one more spider, but as he was turning to face the next, he felt a pair of sharp fangs sink into his back. The second the teeth punctured his skin, he felt the poison from them begin to burn his body. It spread from the wound quickly, and Miroku fell to his knees. When he fell, the spider moved with him, continuing to inject venom. From his knees he fell flat on the ground, and the spider finally gave up on filling his entire body with poison.  
  
Miroku watched himself fall, felt himself hit the ground, and his entire body filled up with pain. The wound in his back throbbed, and he knew he wouldn't be able to hold onto life much longer. His vision became blurry, and it became hard to breathe. He'd never been affected by poison so quickly before. He became dizzy and shut his eyes. He'd imagined himself dying before, but never like this. He always thought he'd die from being pulled into his wind tunnel or sacrificing his life for the people he cared about. He never thought he'd die a meaningless death from underestimating the enemy and being careless and stupid. He hoped that Sango and the others were ok, and would be able to destroy Naraku without him. Sango . . . why hadn't he noticed his love for her sooner? Why did he always carelessly flirt with women right in front of her? His breath was coming in gasps now. He tried to picture Sango's beautiful, smiling face once more before his consciousness slipped away.  
  
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InuYasha and Kagome watched as Sango and Kirara zigzagged across the forest, searching for any signs of Miroku. InuYasha watched her searching hopelessly, and grew impatient. "Do we really have time to waste sitting here while she searches? Can't we go search the cave, even without her?"  
  
Typical of InuYasha, Kagome thought. "One thing that I don't think you've quite realized about this cave, InuYasha. You said it was very close to the mountain, right? All the trees lining the mountain are really close. Well, I've been thinking . . . how do we know that when we try to go down to the cave we won't get attacked by trees on the way?"  
  
InuYasha stared at her, stunned. He hadn't thought of that. "When they threw me in front of the cave, they stopped attacking. They didn't attack again until I started climbing the mountain. They wanted me to enter that cave. If you're not coming with me, I'm going inside it alone. I can't take this any more!"  
  
"Honestly, InuYasha! You have no patience whatsoever! Just have a little faith that Sango will find Miroku!"  
  
"It has nothing to do with faith! I just think there are better things to do with my time than sit here bored out of my mind!" InuYasha stood up. But Kagome wasn't done with him yet.  
  
"Oh, so I'm boring, am I? Well fine then, leave!" She stuck her nose into the air, turned her head away, and crossed her arms. Even Shippo couldn't help but stare, amazed by Kagome's attitude.  
  
"I never said YOU were boring! Don't twist my words arou-"  
  
"No, but you implied it!" She still refused to look at him  
  
"Feh!" InuYasha sat back down. "Believe what you want." They sat in silence for a few minutes. Shippo couldn't stand the tension any longer, so he hopped out of Kagome's lap and hit InuYasha on the head. InuYasha glared at him. "Do you really think that was smart??"  
  
"InuYasha, stop being an idiot!"  
  
"You're the one who punched me!" InuYasha began to think the world was against him today.  
  
"You deserved it! You're being stupid, immature, and -" Shippo didn't get a chance to finish his sentence. InuYasha had leaned over and punched him hard on the head. Tears welled up in Shippo's eyes. He looked at InuYasha's face, ready to yell in protest, but noticed that InuYasha now looked worried about something. Maybe their argument had taken its toll. Shippo let InuYasha get away with hitting him this one time, only cuz he'd hit InuYasha first.  
  
A few more moments passed in silence. InuYasha glanced over at Kagome, who's face hadn't grown any softer. She was still angry with him. Would she ever give him a break? "Look, Kagome, I-"  
  
"Sit Boy!" She didn't want to hear it.  
  
"Ghhhg!" SLAM! InuYasha's body hit the mountaintop as he fell face first into the rock. A few bits of debris shook before tumbling over the edge of the mountain. InuYasha pulled his face up, turned to face Kagome, and opened his mouth to yell an angered apology at her, but didn't get the chance to. First he noticed the smell of blood in the air, and then he saw Sango returning from the forest quickly.  
  
"Sango-chan! Any luck?" Kagome stood up, seemingly forgetting her anger at InuYasha.  
  
"Well, sort of. I can see a clearing way up ahead, but I don't know if it would be safe to approach it alone. So I came to ask if you guys could travel along the mountaintop. It looks as if it's close enough to the mountains for you to see it clearly as well."  
  
"Heh, need a bit of back-up, do ya?" InuYasha was happy for some reason that Sango was asking for help. It wasn't often that she let out any signs of fear, and he was glad she was now. After all, it was better than if she had gone on her own and run into danger she couldn't handle. InuYasha sensed that she had also come for emotional support, in case she was unable to handle what they were about to see. With this in his head, he couldn't bring himself to tell her about the blood. "Well, let's go, Kagome!"  
  
"Right!" Kagome jumped onto InuYasha's back, and he began to run. Kirara leaped back into the air, and they ran side by side in the direction of the clearing in the forest.  
  
--------------------------------------------------------- From the top of a tree, the demoness Sayuki had watch the whole scene. She had watched the human run past the tree she was in, stop in the middle of the clearing, and be nearly killed by the spiders which attacked him. But she hadn't paid much attention. Any human who entered the forest was bound to end up dead, either from being beaten to death by the trees or bitten by the spiders. Occasionally one would die in another way, but none ever survived. Sayuki enjoyed watching them die sometimes, and had rather enjoyed watching this particular man put up a pathetic attempt at defending himself from the spiders. But as she watched the spiders leave his body lying there to go deal with the spider he had managed to kill, she took a good look at the man. He looked around 20 years old, and had a cute face. A very cute face at that. Such a shame he was lying there dying, really. She stared a few minutes more and decided he didn't really need to die so soon . . . and if he did she could deal with how it would be done on her own. But that would be later.  
  
She jumped down to the ground as soon as the spiders dragged their dead comrade away. She inspected the human closely, and saw that he was no longer breathing, but his heart was still beating. Sayuki estimated a good 30 seconds before it stopped. Her powers wouldn't need that long. Resting her hand over his wound, she focused her thoughts on the word "heal". When she saw her hand glowing blue, she knew it was working. After about 15 seconds, she removed her hand and revealed that there was no longer any wound to waste her time with. The blood that had surrounded him had disappeared as well. Now the hard part. It wouldn't be easy to steal the spiders' prey, but she was confident she could do it. Her cave wasn't far away, and she could easily run faster than they could. Hearing them coming back, she lifted the man from the ground and ran into the forest. The spiders didn't have a chance of catching her. She laughed as she approached her cave, waved the barrier aside, and ran through the entrance to the cave, looking down at her stolen goods with a smile. 


	4. The Cave Of The Demoness

The Cave of the Demoness  
  
Suddenly InuYasha stopped. They were almost at the clearing, but something was strange. He smelled the air curiously. The scent of blood he had noticed earlier was now gone. It had just faded away, as if the blood had vanished. By the time Sango noticed InuYasha had stopped, she had flown quite a few feet away. She turned around and asked at the same time as Kagome, "What's wrong?"

"Uh, it's nothing. Let's keep going." He still couldn't tell them. He decided to investigate it before filling them in on the details. He jumped the distance between Kirara and himself and continued running. Once they reached the mountain directly across from the clearing, they saw that it was empty. Sango's face fell. She had been hoping to see something, some sort of clue.

"I can't see anything from here, Sango-chan. Let's go down there and look closer." Kagome climbed down off of InuYasha's back and hopped onto Kirara's. She and Sango flew toward the clearing.

"HEY! Kagome! What about me??" But Kagome and Sango were already too far away. He looked at the distance between the mountain and the clearing. It was too big to leap across, but if he got a running jump he might make it. He ran to the back of the mountain top, turned around, and ran as fast as he could toward the edge of the cliff. He jumped and flew through the air, landing very close to the tree on the outer edge of the clearing. Luckily for him, he tumbled out of the way of the branch that grabbed at him. He rolled a few feet farther, and his face landed in the dirt right in the center of the clearing. He lifted his head and sneezed. But as soon as he got the dust out of his nose, he realized that the scent of blood he had smelled before was back again, but very faint. This was where it had been, but it wasn't there anymore. He stood up and looked at Kagome and Sango. He had looked up just in time, too. Unnoticed by Sango, a demon was approaching the side of the forest where she stood.

Sango was looking around at the empty clearing. She looked toward InuYasha and Kagome and noticed InuYasha leaping straight toward her, with his claws in the air ready to attack. Surprised and startled without enough time to dodge, she ducked and prepared to be struck. She felt a wind pass over her head, heard InuYasha's voice yell "Sankon Tessou!" and spun around to see shredded bits of a demon fall to the ground. Another spider emerged over by Kagome. Sango saw it in time and threw her Hiraikotsu at it, cutting it in half. They moved to the middle of the clearing, backs together, waiting for more spiders to appear. When none did, they stepped away from each other, and InuYasha knelt down and smelled the ground in the area. Kagome, Sango, and Shippo waited in suspense as he finished smelling the ground and came to a conclusion of some sort. When he finally stood up, the expression on his face was undecipherable.

"Well . . . I don't really know what to think of this. In one spot, there's a lingering smell of blood, surrounded by Miroku's scent. He was here, and he was injured. But there's no explanation as to what happened to either him or his blood . . . And this whole forest reeks of the scent of demons. More than just the spiders and the trees, who knows what else might be lurking around here, looking for a new target."

"Yeah . . ." Kagome looked worried, but it was nothing compared to Sango. Her face looked on the verge of tears. She was looking at the ground in the spot InuYasha had smelled. She walked towards it and slipped on something. Catching herself, she looked down at the ground and gasped. InuYasha took a step forward and asked "Did you find something?"

Kagome turned to face Sango. "What is it, Sango-chan?" She watched Sango kneel down and pick something out of the thick, meadow grass. She held up Miroku's staff. It was covered with spider webs and bits of dead grass. But there was no blood on it, neither his nor any demon blood.

"His staff? What's he doing without his staff?" Shippo wondered out loud.

"I don't know, but somehow I don't think he left it behind on purpose. InuYasha, you said his scent disappeared?" Kagome watched as InuYasha nodded, then continued. "Well, maybe you could try to find which direction it disappeared in . . . ?"

"Keh! As if I haven't tried that already! It's only in that one spot, then after that it completely disappears. There's too many other scents of demons for it to be strong enough to be traced."

"Maybe that cave is our best bet after all . . ." Kagome said. "It might not hurt anything to check it out."

"If you'd have just listened to me in the first place, we could already be there, possibly standing next to Miroku right now!" InuYasha yelled, glaring at Kagome with a cocky yet angered expression on his face.

Sango stopped Kagome from sending some sort of remark back at InuYasha. "Do you remember exactly where the cave was?" InuYasha was startled to hear Sango's calm voice rather than Kagome's angry one. Apparently Kagome was surprised too.

InuYasha looked away. "Not exactly. But if we go back to the mountain, I'm sure we'll find it eventually."

"Ok then, lets hurry. We don't have any time to waste." Kagome walked over to Sango as Kirara knelt down and let Sango climb on. Sango looked shocked at Kagome for a moment. She started to say "Shouldn't you be riding with InuYasha?" but then realized it sounded rude. Instead of speaking, she ordered Kirara toward the mountain. Grumbling to himself, InuYasha leapt after them.

When Sango and Kagome reached the mountain, they waited for InuYasha to reach it. As he came closer, flying through the air, they noticed him beginning to drop. He got a slight look of panic on his face as he realized the distance was too great for him to jump up. He began to fall. He looked down, and let out a noise of surprise as he saw he was going to land right on top of a tree. The tree seemingly knew this as well, and reached out a branch to grab at him. "Keh, thanks for the help!" he said as he let his foot hit the tree branch, using it to launch himself the remaining distance to the mountain. The tree tried to grab his foot, but he moved away before it could. He landed on the mountain, turned around, and stuck his tongue out at the tree and his nose in the air. It had no effect on the tree, but Sango, Kagome, and Shippo all had looks that showed they weren't amused by his immaturity. "What an idiot." Shippo said, not bothering to lower his voice.

"If InuYasha's ready to act his age, maybe he could tell us which direction the cave is in." Sango looked at InuYasha, waiting for his response. He started to walk toward them, looking angry and cracking his knuckles. He punched Shippo on the head, watched the tears well in the fox's eyes, and continued past them. After a few feet he stopped, turned his head back, and said, "It's this way."

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When Sayuki entered the cave that she called home, she used her magic to light the torches that lined it. She began to wonder how she could use this monk to her advantage. She sensed other humans in the forest and wondered if they knew him. She hoped so. Humans built strong bonds with each other that were easily toyed with. If she could figure out exactly what those bonds were, she could manipulate this human to lure in the others. And with her magic already inside him, keeping his breathing steady, she knew she'd have no trouble doing it.

By the time her thoughts had reached this point, she was in the main part of the cave, the part that she spent most of her time in. It was a large, slightly triangular shaped cavern. In one area of the cave, there were items that she had either made with her own powers or slain demons to acquire. On another side was a flower patch and a small river that ran inside the mountain. The river had fish inside it that she could use to keep her new human "pet" alive with. The last side of the cave was almost a fork. It had two separate caves leading in different directions. One led out of the other end of the mountain, but the other led to an underground chamber, full of nothing but glittering jewels and natural rocks. The gems grew there on their own, and she loved to wander down and admire them. Occasionally she would break one off and use it to make a weapon or an ornament for her to wear. She made herself feel more like a human every time she did this, but that was why she had been rejected by her family and friends. But she didn't mind, she didn't need them anyway. She was plenty happy on her own, manipulating humans and demons alike, rather than aiding demons and merely slaughtering humans.

She lay the human down in the center, flat on the rocky interior of the mountain. She traveled down to the chamber and broke off some pieces of quartz, which she used to form chains. She carried them out, used some magic to attach them to the rock wall next to the cavern, and chained the monk by the wrists to the wall. She had made them at the perfect height. He would have looked as if he was just sitting on his knees with his arms up if the chains weren't there and his head wasn't hanging limply on his chest. Now all she had to do was wait for him to regain consciousness, and she figured that wouldn't take very long. She sat down on the flowers that she used as a bed and relaxed. She would be able to sense him waking up, so she didn't see the point in watching him. She leaned back and wondered what she should do when she was done playing with the humans. Should she eat them? Fish and spider meat got boring after a while, and she didn't like the taste of any of the plants that grew around this area.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a strange noise. She looked up to see the monk's face twitching. He was beginning to wake up. She stood up and began to walk toward him, waiting for his eyes to open.

---------------------------------------------------------

Miroku was beginning to wake up. He didn't know how or why he was waking up, or where he was. At the moment, he couldn't even remember what had happened to him, why he had fallen unconscious. His mind felt fuzzy, and his entire body ached with pain, as if something was flowing through his veins other than blood, something unwelcome. He tried to open his eyes, but he couldn't. As his other senses began to return to him, he heard footsteps approaching him. Please let it be Sango, he begged. Or Kagome, or even InuYasha. The footsteps grew closer. He tried once again to open his eyes, and this time he succeeded. As his vision came into focus, he saw he was looking down at his body, his head pointed toward the ground. It was then that he noticed he was being held up by his wrists. Something was around them, keeping him from falling down. But instead of looking up to find out what, he decided it would be smarter to find out whose footsteps had just stopped in front of him. He began to raise his head, but felt light-headed when he did so. Suddenly, his back throbbed so bad that he closed his eyes in pain to keep them from watering. And as he did so, a woman's voice began to speak to him.

"Oh, does it still hurt? Too bad, you're going to have to deal with it. I can heal human flesh wounds to a certain degree with my magic, but they have to be tough enough to handle the remaining pain on their own." Miroku didn't recognize the voice. He opened his eyes and forced himself to look up at whoever was speaking to him. She appeared to be a human, but she had just spoken of using magic. She was either a priestess or a demon, and he had a strong feeling a priestess's holy powers weren't what had healed him. She noticed him looking at her and began to speak again.

"You're lucky to be alive, Monk, I almost decided to let the spiders have you. They're horrible demons, even I hate them." She looked at him, apparently waiting for a response. But Miroku was unable to respond. He was trying to remember what she was talking about, trying to remember anything about spider demons. His mind was drawing a blank. He looked down and tried to find his voice, but didn't get a chance to speak before she did.

"Well, aren't you going to thank me for saving you, for reviving you?" He looked at her again. She looked angry now.

Without taking his eyes off of her, he said slowly, "I don't remember anything that's happened recently. I'm sorry for not thanking you, but I have no clue what you're talking about. All I know is that my body is in pain, and you're here telling me I was apparently almost killed. But I don't know how that happened, or who you are." He looked away from her and sighed. He felt weak and vulnerable, knowing that the woman in front of him knew more about himself than he did. Suddenly, he felt whatever was holding him up release, but he didn't have time to stop himself from falling. He hit the ground hard, managing to not land on his face. When some of his strength recovered, he rolled onto his back and looked up at the wall that had been behind him the whole time. Something sparkled white and purple. It seemed to be some sort of rock chain, but his eyes didn't linger on it long enough to find out. The demoness had unlocked the chains and set him free for some reason. Maybe because she now knew that now he could hold himself up. He sat up and put his hand on his head. It had hurt even before the fall, but now, sitting on the ground, it hurt so bad he was beginning to get dizzy. And it didn't help that he was searching his mind, trying to find any memory as to what had happened before he'd passed out. But nothing was coming to him. He sighed and began to wonder where InuYasha, Kagome, Sango, and Shippo were. He hoped they were all safe and weren't in the same position he was.

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InuYasha ran along the mountain, traveling faster than normal because he didn't have Kagome on his back weighing him down. Kirara had trouble keeping up with him. She had double the weight on her back now, and InuYasha was flying away from her faster than she herself could fly. But Kirara understood the need to rush. Miroku may not have been her real owner, but she had become attached to him, as well as the others, as if they were her owners.

Kirara was just beginning to catch up with InuYasha when he stopped. Unable to stop in time, she let out a roar as she collided with InuYasha's back. Sango and Kagome were sent flying off of Kirara's back and into the air. Shippo flew off of Kagome's shoulder. InuYasha pulled himself out from underneath Kirara and managed to catch Sango before she hit the ground, and Kagome slammed on top of InuYasha. Inuyasha fell to the ground again, this time landing on top of Sango in an awkward position. Shippo flew into the top of the mountain a few feet away from them. When Kirara stood up, she saw the three humans piled on top of each other and walked over to them, whimpering slightly, hoping they weren't hurt. InuYasha appeared fine, but anger burned in his eyes as Kagome managed to stand up. He jumped off of Sango, who stood up and turned away, her face burning red with embarrassment.

"Someone want to tell me what the HELL just happened?" InuYasha's eyes darted back and forth from Kagome to Sango to Kirara. He was completely ignoring Shippo, who sat up rubbing his head, where a small bump was beginning to grow.

"Um, well...I'm not too sure, actually." Kagome tried to answer, but realized she had nothing to answer his question with.

"I think I can explain." Sango said, her back still turned to InuYasha and Kagome. She was looking at Kirara, who was sitting on the ground in front of her, staring at the ground as if she were as embarrassed as Sango was. "We were moving so fast trying to keep up with you that by the time Kirara noticed you had stopped, she couldn't avoid hitting you." Kirara purred in agreement.

"Geez, InuYasha! Next time, give us more warning before you stop, that hurt!" Kagome glared at InuYasha, throwing all the blame on him as usual. She took her eyes off of him and walked over to Shippo. She picked him up and, all the anger gone from her voice, asked "Are you ok, Shippo-chan?"

"Yeah, I think so." His hand was still on his head. Kagome saw the bump on his head. It didn't take much to figure out that he had hit his head on the mountaintop. Kagome felt sympathy for him and kissed his head where the bump was. Shippo was shocked at first, then he looked up at Kagome and said, "Hey, that worked!" He shut his eyes and smiled. "It feels much better now!" He opened his eyes again and saw Kagome giving him a shut-eyed smile in return.

From beside them InuYasha made a retching noise and said "Keh, you people make me sick!" InuYasha started walking toward the edge of the mountain. "And if anyone cared to ask, the reason I stopped was because we've reached it. Right down there is the cave I saw earlier." He was looking over the edge of the mountain. It appeared to slant down toward a gap in the mountain wall. Sango guessed that must have been the entrance to the cave.

Kagome walked up beside Sango, still carrying Shippo in her arms. "Should we go check it out?" She looked toward InuYasha as she asked the question. Without even noticing, Sango had climbed onto Kirara and was already halfway down the mountain. "I'll take that as a yes..." InuYasha pulled Kagome onto his back and they followed Sango down to the bottom of the mountain. On the way down, a tree lashed its branch out at them, but once they reached the ground and were in front of the cave, it stopped.

Sango stared at the trees. "Doesn't it seem a bit odd that the trees everywhere else attack us, yet in front of the cave they act normal? Its almost as if they want us to enter the cave . . ." She turned to look at the others. Kagome was trying to see inside the cave. InuYasha was looking at the trees.

"Yeah, when they were carrying me, this is where they dropped me. And after they dropped me they acted as if they were done with me, like they wanted me to go into the cave." "But somehow I don't think you would have been able to. Look." Kagome pointed to the entrance, and Sango saw something gleam.

"There's a barrier over the entrance!" Sango exclaimed. "But if we aren't able to enter it, why do the trees seemingly want us to?" "Maybe they hope we won't notice it and will try to charge headfirst into it." Shippo suggested. Everyone looked at Shippo, surprised. He hadn't been talking much lately, seemingly too scared by everything that was going on. But now he suddenly spoke up, saying something that no one else would have thought to say.

"Nice thinking, Shippo-chan!" Kagome smiled at Shippo, then looked at InuYasha. "That sounds like a good explanation for what's going on here. Now all we have to figure out is how we get rid of the barrier . . ." She wondered if her arrow would be able to break it, but she didn't think that was the best idea. She didn't have very many arrows on her.

"That's easy. I'll use my Tetsusaiga!" InuYasha walked forward, pulling his sword out and standing directly in front of the barrier. Sango and Kagome backed away slightly. InuYasha stared at the barrier as his sword pulsated and then began to slowly turn red. When it was no longer the pale color it usually was, he leapt forward and swung his blood-red Tetsusaiga down and through the barrier. Only it didn't go through it, it was repelled. InuYasha was sent flying backward, landing on the ground right in front of the tree that had dropped him here earlier. "Damn, why didn't that work?" He stood up, dusted himself off, and ran toward the barrier again, sword lifted, ready to strike it again.

"InuYasha, wait!" But InuYasha ignored Kagome's voice and swung the Tetsusaiga again. This time it didn't even begin to sink through the barrier. It was sent flying out of his hand and he was sent flying backwards once again. He screamed as he felt himself fly backwards. His sword landed in the ground near Sango, and transformed back to its original form. InuYasha hit the tree he had landed near last time, and fell to the ground face first.  
"InuYasha!" Kagome and Shippo yelled at the same time. Kagome ran over to InuYasha, Shippo jumping off her shoulder and running ahead. InuYasha began to push himself off of the ground when they reached him. Kagome knelt down and tried to help InuYasha, but he pushed her hand away and stood up.

"Dammit, how the hell are we going to get in there?" He stared at the barrier, feeling defeated, but he wasn't going to give up yet. By now he knew Miroku had to be in there, and he was going to be inside the cave soon, too.


End file.
